Music, Mind & Fitness

It is well known that listening to music has a profound impact on the human body. Relaxing music benefits your body by reducing stress. Finding a tune that makes you comfortable decreases your blood pressure and calms your body by lowering your heart rate. According to a study published in the journal Heart, music tempo affects heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure and can be manipulated to encourage both arousal and relaxation.

A 2011, Canadian study published in Nature Neuroscience, has shown that plugging into your favorite music could help melt away a bad mood. Researchers at McGill University in Montreal showed that listening to pleasurable music of any description induced ‘musical chills’, which triggered the release of the feel-good chemical dopamine.

A study at Brunel University in West London has shown that music can help increase endurance by as much as 15 per cent; helping to lower the perception of effort during exercise, as well as increasing energy efficiency by between one and three percent.

The best choices for exercise are up-beat songs that match the tempo of your running stride and, which can enable you to run for longer.

Did you know?

“I Gotta Feeling”, by The Black Eyed Peas, is Apple’s most-downloaded iTunes songs of all time. As of June 2012, it has sold over 8 million downloads in the US alone. This also makes it the highest selling digital, as well as non-charity, single in the US ever.